House panel calls governor, EPA chief to testify on Flint

“Any information would be greatly appreciated, because it looks as if we will be starting the plant up tomorrow and are being pushed to start distributing water as soon as possible”, Glasgow wrote. But he said his superiors “seem to have their own agenda“.

On April 25, 2014, Flint ended its relationship with its Detroit water supplier and switched to the polluted Flint River. The level of lead in the city’s water supply is now out of hand and children now suffer from near lead poisoning – having significant amounts of lead in their blood.

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder, who has apologised for the state’s poor handling of the water crisis, alerted the public to the outbreak on January 13 and said he had only heard about it two days earlier.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz, S-Utah, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, stated Friday he invited Snyder and EPA chief Gina McCarthy to testify on the Flint disaster.

Meanwhile, an independent task force that Snyder appointed last fall are expected to release a report in the coming weeks that will identify specific failures by the state government, Snyder’s office said. Democrats, especially those running for president, are pointing to mistakes by Snyder’s administration during the crisis as a vivid example of Republican-style cost-cutting run amok. No date for the hearing has been set, but a committee spokeswoman said the session is likely next month. Even before the lead problem was discovered, residents complained repeatedly that their water had become smelly, bad-tasting and discolored.

In fact, the state says nobody knows if miscarriages increased while women in Flint drank the contaminated water because statistics are not available yet.

The donated water will be delivered to the Michigan Crossroads Council in Flint, MI for a major Scout Good Turn Distribution Day Feb. 27. Burrell noticed the woman who brought recyclables to the station was short of breath and struggling for her inhaler.

MI authorities blocked county health officials from investigating an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease that may have been linked to the water crisis in the impoverished city of Flint, a county health supervisor told CNN on Saturday.

U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, Flint Mayor Karen Weaver and Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha will be on-hand Friday at Hurley Children’s Clinic when New York-based Children’s Health Fund deploys one of the vehicles in its fleet of mobile clinics.

During this time, an emergency manager was in control of the city and state officials were working to determine whether or not they should use the Flint River as it’s source, or settle on a deal with Detroit to use it’s water. Water officials didn’t properly treat water from the Flint River despite warnings, causing lead to leach from pipes and into drinking water.